Qatar Airways has taken delivery of its first A320 from Airbus, one of six scheduled for delivery in the next few years, for use on regional routes from its Doha base. Qatar Airways already operates leased A320s.

“Air travel is a fundamental need of trade and tourism and, despite recent events, we are confident of growing our business by providing it with modern aircraft such as the A320 that we have received today,” said Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al-Baker.

In addition to flying A320s on Middle East services, Qatar Airways currently flies A300-600s on its flights to Europe and Asia. It is also a customer for the A330-200 — deliveries of five aircraft on order begin in 2002 — and for two A380s that it will start receiving in 2007. In addition, Qatar Airways is the first airline customer for the Airbus Corporate Jetliner (ACJ). — (Mena Report)